Site stuff

Site Stuff

Site searching for new Steelers beat writer

223

by • Site stuff •

DEJAN
We’re searching for a new Steelers beat writer at DKPittsburghSports.com, as we’ve parted company with Neal Coolong. Most media companies don’t share even that much information about internal moves, and that much will have to suffice here. We wish him the very best.

While we begin a thorough and possibly lengthy search — it’s Week 6 of the NFL season, after all — Matt Gajtka, Josh Yohe and I will cover the Steelers every bit the same as we’ve covered all three of Pittsburgh’s big-league teams to this point.

If you have any questions about the future of the beat, I’ll take them in the comments below.

READ MORE / COMMENT

Monday Planner: Penguins come home

25

by • Site stuff •

DEJAN
SAN DIEGO — A look at another absolutely insane week ahead on the site …

Monday: We open, as always, with our Dave DiCello photo gallery. Josh Yohe will cover the Penguins’ practice at Consol, and he’ll have Good Dudes at 2 p.m. Matt Gajtka will take your Live Qs at 5. And by nightfall, Neal Coolong and I will report on Steelers-Chargers from Qualcomm Stadium.

Monday Planner New Logo
Tuesday: Josh will be with the Penguins morning, noon and night on the day of their 49th home opener, this vs. the Habs. He’ll also take your Live Qs at 5. I’d love to be at the home opener, too, but I’ll be flying back from the farthest continental point in the country. Matt has the Mike Tomlin press conference, as well as a piece on Pitt football, which he’ll cover all week, including the trip to Georgia Tech. Neal has his Steelers PATs analysis at 8:25 p.m., exactly 24 hours after kickoff.

READ MORE / COMMENT

Saturday Site Stuff: More, better video

117

by • Site stuff •

DEJAN
PHOENIX — I like videos. Lots of videos. You might have noticed.

And if you look around the Web,  you’ll see that our nation’s most prominent sports sites are moving heavily to video, some at the expense of still photography altogether.

saturdaySiteStuff10-02-15-1
We won’t do that. I’m a big fan of still photos, and a big believer that a great still can tell a given story 10 times more powerfully than a great video.

Nonetheless, I like lots of videos. And to that end, right down there in the comments, I’d like to get your input as to what kind of videos you’d like to see more or less. And please, be specific. If it’s more Morning Java — and we’re already discussing that — that’s great. But let’s hear any and all video ideas you’ve got.

Oh, except for one: I really hate selfie-sticks. Had to use one in Sochi, and it was just the worst experience. And it doesn’t exactly make compelling video.

READ MORE / COMMENT

Monday Planner: ‘I once did this alone’ edition

by • Site stuff •

DEJAN
A look at an absolutely insane week ahead on the site …

Monday: We open this week with my column looking ahead to the Penguins’ season that opens Thursday in Dallas. We’ve also got our Dave DiCello photo gallery. Josh Yohe will be back on the beat at Consol this morning, and he’ll have Good Dudes at 2 p.m.. Neal Coolong will be back on his beat, too, over on the South Side. I’ve got Five Qs at 5 in place of Matt Gajtka, as we’re trying to buy him a day off in advance of what surely will be a month-long playoff run for the baseball club.

Monday Planner New Logo

Tuesday: Matt will begin the day with a special edition of Matt’s Stats focused on the wild card game. I already know the topic, and it’s exceedingly cool. Neal has the Mike Tomlin press conference at noon, and then he’ll take your Five Qs at 5. Josh has pucks. Matt and I will both cover the Pirates’ workout day at PNC Park. He’ll catch you up on the news, and I’ll write fancy words.

READ MORE / COMMENT

Saturday Site Stuff: The million mark

by • Site stuff •

DEJAN
September smashed every monthly traffic mark we had, blowing through a million page views for the first time. On the main website, we had 450,595. On the app, we increased by more than 200,000 in reaching 601,443. That’s a total of 1,052,038.

All figures are produced by Google Analytics, the industry standard for this measurement, and verified by Pittsburgh Internet Consulting, Inc.

saturdaySiteStuff10-02-15-1
And I’ll remind this was the first month behind the hard paywall. What tells us this: We’re getting more subscribers and, because we’re producing more material than ever, more stuff is being consumed.

READ MORE / COMMENT

Monday Planner: Is this a St. Louis site?

by • Site stuff •

DEJAN
ST. LOUIS — A look at the week ahead on the site …

Monday: We open, as always, with our Dave DiCello photo gallery. In addition to the coverage Neal Coolong and I offer from Steelers-Rams here, we’ll fly back just in time to cover the Mike Tomlin press conference at noon on the South Side. I’ll head over to PNC Park for the opener of Pirates-Cardinals because, hey, I just can’t get enough St. Louis sports. Josh Yohe will have Good Dudes at 2 p.m., then fly up to Quebec City to cover the Penguins and Nordiques … uh, Canadiens. Matt Gajtka, back from 10 days all over the country, will take your Five Qs at 5. Contributor Steve Brenner will cover the Pat Narduzzi press conference at Pitt HQ. Contributor Zachary Weiss will offer our Duquesne notebook.

Monday Planner New Logo

Tuesday: Neal Coolong’s Steelers PATs start us off, he’ll waste no time covering the short week of practices leading up to the Baltimore game Thursday, and he’ll take Five Qs at 5, as well. Josh will spend the day and night in Johnstown, covering the Penguins’ Hockeyville exhibition against the Lightning. (Subscriber meetup there, too!) I’ve got Pirates-Cardinals, Part II. Contributor Connor Whooley will file from James Franklin’s press conference in State College, and David Statman have a report from Dana Holgorsen’s press conference in Morgantown.

READ MORE / COMMENT

Saturday Site Stuff: The real goal? Retention

by • Site stuff •

DEJAN
Our goal in the first year was to build up to 10,000 subscriptions. And we — meaning us and you the readers — blew right through that.

Our goal in the second year and beyond is retention.

saturday_site_stuff me-3

That’s boring, I know, but it’s something in which I believe strongly. The only way we’ll get better as a media outlet — and we’ve got a long, long way to go — is by servicing the customers we already have to the best of our ability. That’s why we added staff, why we travel with all three major-league teams, why we just put $27,000 into a new custom commerce platform. If we can’t keep you happy, we’re not going to keep newcomers happy.

Coinciding with that, wonderfully enough, we are continuing to get new subscribers at an even faster rate than the first year. The past two months alone have been our two biggest revenue months since we started. That’s been enormously uplifting.

But I’d also like to think it had plenty to do with satisfying our current subscribers. Because that’s the best way to get the word out about what we’re doing.

READ MORE / COMMENT

Monday Planner: List gets longer each week

by • Site stuff •

DEJAN
A look at the week ahead on the site …

Monday: We open, as always, with our Dave DiCello photo gallery, this one from that little football game yesterday. By daylight, I’ll head up to Cranberry to check out the Penguins’ training camp, this while Josh Yohe heads out to Columbus to cover their preseason opener at night. At 2 p.m., Josh will have Good Dudes. The Pirates will head to Denver, where Matt Gajtka will take your Five Qs at 5, then cover the opener of the four-game set with the Rockies. Contributor Zachary Weiss will offer our Duquesne all-sports notebook.

Monday Planner New Logo

Tuesday: Neal Coolong’s Steelers PATs start us off, and he’ll cover Mike Tomlin’s press conference and take Five Qs at 5, as well. Connor Whooley will file from James Franklin’s press conference in State College, and David Statman have a report from Dana Holgorsen’s press conference in Morgantown. Matt has more Pirates-Rockies in Denver. Josh and I will be at Consol Energy Center for preseason action against the Hurricanes in what might be Phil Kessel’s Pittsburgh debut. Chris Mueller has the Robert Morris notebook.

READ MORE / COMMENT

Heinz Field before sunrise earlier this week. -- DAVE DiCELLO

Heinz Field before sunrise earlier this week. -- DAVE DiCELLO

Saturday Site Stuff: DiCello takes Heinz Field

by • Site stuff •

DEJAN
We’re beyond delighted at the photography we can offer you via Getty Images, but we’re also hoping as we move along to offer more original work in that area.

To that end, it’s great to share with you here that our creative partner, Dave DiCello, will shoot the Steelers’ home opener exclusively for us Sunday at Heinz Field.

saturday_site_stuff me-3

Young as he is, Dave already has become our city’s most celebrated photographer in many circles, notably that of social media. He’s built that on his love for shooting the city skyline but, as he showed us June 18 with that unforgettable gallery from a Riverhounds match at Highmark Stadium, his gift for capturing the action is right there with his scenery work.

Can’t wait to see the gallery he’ll compile Sunday.

READ MORE / COMMENT

Monday Planner: Penguins’ camp opens

by • Site stuff •

DEJAN
A look at the week ahead on the site …

Monday: We open, as always, with our Dave DiCello photo gallery. By daylight, contributor Steve Brenner will cover Pat Narduzzi’s press conference at Pitt HQ. At 2 p.m., Josh Yohe will have Good Dudettes. Neal Coolong will back on the South Side with the Steelers. The Pirates are off, but Matt Gajtka will have a baseball feature, then take your Five Qs at 5. Contributor Zachary Weiss will offer our Duquesne all-sports notebook.

Monday Planner New Logo

Tuesday: The Pirates and Cubs begin a momentous day-nighter at PNC Park. Matt will have the matinee, and I’ve got the nightcap with a full column. Contributor C.J. Cunningham will file from Pitt practice. Connor Whooley will file from James Franklin’s press conference in State College, and we’ll also have a report from Dana Holgorsen’s press conference in Morgantown. Neal will cover Steelers and take your Five Qs at 5. Alan Saunders has the Robert Morris notebook.

READ MORE / COMMENT

Saturday Site Stuff: The hard wall works

by • Site stuff •

DEJAN
There’s been an argument ongoing for decades about the pluses and minuses of the hard paywall. It’s been ongoing with us, too, even before we launched.

There’s no argument now.

saturday_site_stuff me-3

We spent our first year behind a very soft wall. We knew that and wanted it that way, the better to get out the kind of content we offer and allow potential readers to judge if it was for them. When the hard wall went up two weeks ago, we had an immediate and dramatic spike, the biggest day in site history. The wall had to go back down late last week for additional work, and subscriptions fell off precipitously. It went back up late Wednesday night in time for the Steelers’ opener and … boom! Another serious spike!

READ MORE / COMMENT

Monday Planner: Football, football, football

by • Site stuff •

DEJAN
ST. LOUIS — A look at the week ahead on the site …

Monday: We open, as always, with our Dave DiCello photo gallery.  By daylight, contributor Steve Brenner will cover Pat Narduzzi’s press conference at Pitt HQ. At 2 p.m., Josh Yohe will have Good Dudes. Matt Gajtka picks up the Pirates in Cincinnati with the Labor Day matinee, and he’ll then take your Five Qs at 5. Finally, contributor Zachary Weiss will offer the first of our every-day college notebooks, these offering a spotlight to non-revenue sports. This will be on Duquesne women’s soccer. All I’m doing is flying home.

Monday Planner New Logo

Tuesday: Neal Coolong will unveil the first of a three-part Steelers season preview, and he’ll take your 5 Questions at 5 p.m. Contributor Alan Saunders will file from Pitt practice. Contributor Connor Whooley will file from James Franklin’s press conference in State College. Contributor David Statman will file from Dana Holgorsen’s press conference in Morgantown. Matt will have more Pirates-Reds. Contributor Chris Mueller has the Robert Morris notebook.

READ MORE / COMMENT

1 2 3 4 5 >»